


Do you think something could have changed?

by S_Fish_Rain



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, F/M, SaboKoa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-03-21 06:44:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13735335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S_Fish_Rain/pseuds/S_Fish_Rain
Summary: Ten chapters, ten years Sabo and Koala have known each other. Ten little stories about the evolution of these two characters through the years while growing up in the Revolutionary Army.





	1. The Lone Wolf

It certainly was no secret at all: freedom was the one thing Sabo loved the most. He hated deadlines and obligations, they made him feel like a bird in a cage. His favorite routine was to wake up in the morning whenever he wanted, to eat as much as he wanted and to train the way he wanted, all by himself.

  
That very year he was going to celebrate his third year training at Baltigo as a member of the Revolutionary Army, as well as his third year of life according to what he remembered.

  
Settling down was no easy task at all; a lot of people helped him, and he was thankful to them but, to those he didn’t know well yet, he constantly felt like they could take his freedom away from him in no time. The only one Sabo happened to really like, to the point of actually listening to what he said, was the Army leader Dragon. He always looked up at him with eyes full of admiration, he wanted to become like him and he felt like he was the only one that could really understand how he felt, for he was too a freedom lover. Besides, Sabo already knew that: if it wasn’t for Dragon, he wouldn’t have spent a single second more in that place.

  
Hack, a fishman whose job was to give the Army’s youngest members a basic training of self defense through his Fishmen Karate had already stopped long ago trying to tame him. Dragon choose to personally take the responsibilities for little Sabo’s training and everyone was okay with it, especially Sabo, a rebel soul who needed his spaces.

  
In short this was the reason why Sabo had no close friends his age, and why every kid in the Army would call him a lone wolf.

 

***

 

Baltigo’s landscape was really boring for Sabo’s tastes. Known as the “Land of White Soil”, the ground was entirely made of rocks, there was no vegetation, no life, nowhere to hide and nothing to do. The only thing that seemed alive on that island was the wind; it was, in fact, the only thing Sabo could pick a fight with for training. Not even once, though, Sabo was strong enough to defeat it.

  
His favorite place was on the northernmost shore where a long, rocky slope led to the sea. That one was his own personal den, his own and… just his own. He sometimes dreamed of a little drove he could share his adventures with. A total of three was perfect; “Maybe someday I’ll meet them” he kept telling to himself “Until then, it’s just me, this wind and this sea!”.

  
That was the way all of his days were spent, when he wasn’t training with Dragon, of course: wondering if maybe there was someone else waiting for him on a far off shore somewhere on the other side of the vast ocean ahead him. Alone. That was probably the reason why he wasn’t seeing the sound of somebody clearing their throat coming behind him, consequently the scaredy cat inside the lone wolf that he was, jumped out and Sabo fell on his back after letting a scream out. As soon as he realized it, he blushed in anger and… embarrassment, maybe?

  
«Why do you always skip the Fishmen Karate training?» said a kid, standing on the highest spot of the slope.

  
«Who are you!? And who told you to come here!? We already settled down the training thing!!» he said snarling.

  
The kid didn’t answer though: «Why?» asked again.

  
Sabo couldn’t wait anymore, his territory was desecrated and he had to protect it: «Don’t force me to send you back the hard way. You must be a newbie, so let me introduce myself: I’m Sabo, Dragon personally trains me. Every kid around here knows it’s better not to mess with me.»

  
Again, the kid, did not reply. Sabo started to approach her climbing up the slope, but as he got clone enough he could see that she was… “Smiling!!?”

  
«Are you making fun of me!? You’ll pay for this!!» and with his faithful pipe in hand, he rushed to lend an hit on the one who dared to challenge him. It was already too late, though, when he noticed that his target was gone.

Surprised and a little scared, by the way she disappeared, Sabo turned his head and looked around, searching for that dangerous kid. She was there again, behind him, always with the same annoying smile: «I know you are strong- she said while sliding her right feet behind her skinny body, while her arm was doing the same through her flank- But if you can’t hit me, strength is pointless.»

  
Sabo wondered if that kid had something like time-controlling powers or something when the fist of that young girl, which didn’t even touch him the slightest, actually managed to hurt him, and pretty severely too.

  
«Answer my question now.»

 

***

 

Sabo couldn’t still believe to what his eyes witnessed that very day, he thought while staring blankly his room’s ceiling: apparently this kid just wanted him to keep Fishmen Karate trainings because of some weird reason…

  
«You can’t judge something you never tried.»

  
Sabo knew that Hack would have never sent a newcomer girl to try making him reasoning but, excluding him, who could have done that? He couldn’t sleep that night because of this huge amount of thoughts that were keeping his mind busy. The day after, though, his only persistent thought was a single one: to not let that girl find him.

  
«Good morning, Sabo!» and yet, the always-smiling girl stood there again, calling his name also by using an honorific nobody allowed her to use.

  
The first thing Sabo did was to check if she had feet, since air seemed to be less silent than her steps: «What do you want now!?»

  
«Will you join our training sessions today?» she asked.

  
«You can’t tell me what to do! I already told you yesterday!!» he answered, furious.

  
«Not even if I beat you?»

  
«As if you could beat me!!»

  
«I already did, yesterday.»

  
«Wh-what!!? That didn’t even count as a match!!»

  
Not even Sabo believed he was not scared of her when he spoke. She caught him off guard and he realized he shouldn’t have underestimated her as he did, also, working a little bit more on speed and reflexes wasn’t a bad idea at all.

  
He spent the whole day training and when the sun was starting to set he was exhausted. Dragon had noticed that there was something weird with Sabo during that day’s few hours of training, but the kid didn’t give him a clear answer about that; he just kept training.

  
«You skipped training today too» said a voice that give little Sabo a chill down his spine.

  
«I told you, I do not train with Hack!! Ask him, he’ll tell you how things work.» he told her… again.

  
«I already did.» she answered.

  
He was kind of surprised by that statement, what did Hack tell her?  
«Then go away!!» he said in the most threatening way he could.

  
«Kick me out.»

  
Sabo gulped. Her confidence sure was creepy if you added it to her omnipresent smile. But he let his anger prevail: once again, he rushed towards her, careful not to lose sight of his target. You would say that the fact that this time she didn’t move an inch surprised Sabo. Well, the fact that the hit didn’t even touch on her anyway surprised him way more. Why? Due to what it looked like a water shield which bent his pipe right when he was sure he got her this time.

  
«This is what we learned to do today. It’s a very useful move when you’ve got your back against the wall.» she said, always with a smile.

  
«I don’t need your lectures or your moves!! I am me and I fight my way!!»

  
«Of course you don’t, but if you did you would’ve beaten me already.»

  
That last line left Sabo speechless. He was finally starting to get the sense behind the weird behavior of that kid he just met, even though he still had a lot of doubts he was even scared to question. However, that three-seconds hesitation betrayed him and another fist took him by surprise.

 

***

 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this” thought Sabo while lending a couple of fists in the air in sync with a huge mass of children. Hack was standing next to him, crying from laugh: «You are doing it all wrong Sabo!!»

  
«Shut up! It has been three weeks already. Just the last one to go and I’m going back to train with Dragon. I don’t need to master anything here!!» said Sabo with red cheeks.

  
«Sure, sure… Let’s change scheme, everyone!!» screamed Hack to the mass while walking away.

  
With furrowed brows and his dignity trampled he kept following Hack’s instructions. Sometimes his eyes would secretly wander around, looking for the mysterious smiling girl, a couple of rows behind him. He noticed she was really good at Fishmen Karate. She never needed to stop or asking for Hack’s direct assistance. Not that he particularly cared about that.  
Training sessions with Hack lasted longer than the ones with Dragons so every time he finally got to reach his special place it was already too late to start doing anything at all.

  
«Did you like our training sessions?» asked a familiar voice.  
Sabo’s answer was just a sigh.

  
«Woah! I didn’t know there was someplace this beautiful on this island!» said a voice he never heard before.

  
Sabo’s reaction was a gulp.

  
«The sunset on the ocean is beautiful from this perspective!»

  
«Are you stupid? You’ll get hurt if you try to roll down this slope!!»

  
«Hey! Wait!! You are too fast!»

  
All of the children he had been training with for almost a month were there, on the highest point of that slope, laughing and playing. Sabo didn’t know what to do, definitely not just stand there and watch while they were stepping on his sacred land; «What are you trying to do here!? Go away!! This is my territory!!» he said grabbing his bent pipe in defense.

  
«It’s such a beautiful place! Can we enter your territory!?»

  
That question surprised him a lot. He noticed that nobody actually had put a single feet on the slope up until that moment, so basically nobody was desecrating his land at all.

  
«Hello!! Sabo!! Can we!?»

Freedom is really an amazing thing.

«Uhm…- Sabo started rubbing his head, looking away- Sure…» he said, slowly.

Because it’s not something you can archive alone.

 

***

 

The kids called it a “party on the beach”, they were talking, playing, having fun! They invited Sabo to join them several times. He talked too, opening up a bit, and he learned a lot of new names! When he had nothing to do, though, he would turn his head looking for that kid with the creepy smile but he never managed to find her. Weird, considering that hers was the first voice he heard that night.

  
“What a crazy day” he thought unable to hide a smile, lying under a sky full of stars, once everyone left.

  
«Did you have fun?»

  
The sound of that voice made him jump on his feet and turn instantly: «Where were you?» he asked.

  
«I’ve always been here.» she said with a smile.

  
«Why did you do that?» he asked again.

  
But her only answer was a smile. After a short silence she turned to get away.

  
Sabo tried to stop her: «Wait! You never even told me your name!!»

  
By hearing that she did stop; she turned again before finally answering him: «The name is Koala!»


	2. Brave Children

When children from Baltigo reached fifteen years old, it was tradition that they would be sent on their first mission in the field to start learning how to handle a task, and the basis of teamworking. That one was Koala’s year.

  
«Usually we prefer not to send anybody on a dispatch after just an year of training, but your results at the preliminary tests were all good. Your stealth in particular is perfect and Hack says you have already mastered more than the average of the other children in his course. So congratulation Koala; get ready for your first mission.» said Dragon before giving her a single sheet of paper which Koala grabbed, with a smile, and walked away while Dragon went back on his work.

  
«… What are you doing here?» said the man after a couple of seconds, noticing who was standing on the other side of the desk.

  
«Why can’t I go on a mission too? I’ve been training for four years already!» said the blonde boy in blue.

  
«You are too young.» Dragon wasn’t even lifting his eyes from his papers.

  
«How do you know that!? I don’t even remember my birthdate so I totally may be a fifteen years old already!» claimed the teen.

  
«I can distinguish a ten years old boy when I meet one. You are fourteen this year, Sabo.» declared the man in behind the desk.

  
«You are teaching me how to use Ambition!! You told me it was rare and difficult for kids my age but I'm making it anyway!!»

  
«It’s not about strength, it’s about being ready. Fighting is the last thing we do during missions, we always try to avoid it when we can. A mission is about following schemes, concentration and stealth. There are people’s lives on the line. You are not ready, Sabo.»

 

***

 

«Where are you going for your mission?» asked a pouting Sabo to his friend Koala when they were eating their lunch together at the base’s canteen.

  
Before giving him the answer he wanted, Koala pulled out of her pocket the piece of paper Dragon gave her a few hours before: «The mission file mentions a certain Clock Town located in the South Blue. Looks like I just have to hide a transponder snail in a meeting hall…»

  
Sabo looked really pissed while listening to her, «Sound like fun?» he said then, looking away.  
Koala simply smiled back: «I’m sure your first mission is going to be great!»

  
The boy sighed.

  
The two kids had become pretty close friends in the past year; or at least, Koala was Sabo’s best one. They didn’t meet often, if not during mealtimes or when the children were asked for a help in everyday duties at the base, but when they did they could talk about anything… especially Sabo, who realized he was a real chatterbox! He was sincerely happy to finally have found somebody his age he could spend time with; he couldn’t remember a single moment from his childhood but surely Koala was the first friend he could recall.

  
On that day, though, Sabo was being really taciturn and he stayed like that until it was time for Koala to leave for her mission. He really didn’t want to miss that chance: he had been training for so long already but simple training was starting to bore him.

He wanted to actively join the fight, he wanted to get his hands dirty to protect those unable to fight, just like Dragon! And yet he stood in a distant spot, watching the boat as its passengers were boarding it to reach the island of their mission, all by himself.

  
The wind was starting to get really strong; he had to grasp his hat’s brim to prevent his beloved top hat to fly away. That hat was all that was left from the blank of his early years. Dragon said he had found it next to him when he saved the ten years old child from the waves, four years before. It was scorched and almost torn to pieces but, fortunately, a very talented tailor form the Army managed to repair it as good as new.

  
This is why he gasped when his grip failed and his hat flew away carried by the wind. He panicked and started to chase it.

  
That hat was something he just couldn’t afford to lose: the only thing left from the darkness of his early years. The wind was dragging it to the shore and Sabo rushed to prevent it from happening, although he already knew too well that he could not beat that wind. He clenched his teeth when he saw his hat leaving the land area to fly away over the sea surface and without thinking twice he jumped, hoping to be finally able to grab it… but he missed it and, once again, he found himself trapped in the ocean’s waves.

 

***

 

«Oh, you woke up!» said the smiling girl he immediately saw when he woke up in a gasp. He was lying in a bed inside a soft-lighted room.

  
«Sabo, are you okay?- asked Hack, who was there as well- What happened? You suddenly jumped into the sea! You had us worried.»

  
But Sabo had his own priorities first: «My hat!! Where’s my hat!?» screamed while jumping on his feet, but he was too fast as his head started spinning and his legs went out.

  
«Outside, drying up with your soaked-wet clothes, Sabo- answered Hack while holding him– Why?»

  
Sabo freed himself from Hack’s grip and rushed outside to check on it.

  
Sabo found himself standing on the deck of one of the Revolutionary Army’s dispatch ship. The wind had appeased; Sabo’s clothes, attached to one of the sailing ropes, were waving softly as the wind caressed them. His beloved top hat was right there, as the fishman told him.

  
«Sabo!» he heard Hack, out of breath, calling his name while chasing him outside.

  
Sabo paused a little, still staring at his hat. Then he looked back at his friend Hack: «Oops» giggled in the end, realizing that he just happened to crash in the dispatch group headed for the mission he was not allowed to be a part of.

 

***

 

It was already too late to go back to Baltigo and leave Sabo behind so they decided to bring him with them, assign him an easy task in Clock Town, and return home.

  
Sabo’s joy was overwhelming; he spent his whole time on the ship playing with his pipe, daydreaming about his first mission. Avoiding the thought of Dragon chewing him out afterwards, he was looking forward to his first true adventure on the field… everything while lending an hand in the kitchen and helping with the ship’s maintenance, of course. Those moments were less cheerful to him, but he still managed to finish every job assigned to him with a smile. This made him feel a little like Koala, the perpetual-smiler friend he still knew too little about. He always wanted to ask her about that. He thought about a thousand of ways to put the question, like: “Hey, huh… you know you are always smiling, don’t you?”, “Do you, like, think everything is funny or what?”, “You always smile. That’s creepy, you know?” but he would always end up delaying it, thinking about a better wording.

  
After several navigation days, the ship finally docked on the mission’s island. The revolutionaries were all wearing their disguises and needed not to attract attention.

  
“This kid is surprisingly good at keeping a low profile” thought Sabo while scanning the girl walking next to him.

  
The dispatch team split up in tiny groups to avoid being noticed by locals; Sabo and Koala were walking all by themselves towards the meeting point with Hack and the others, in the girl’s pocket, a transponder snail they needed to implant in a specific place in order to accomplish their mission. Koala’s silent steps and her smiling face pointed to the ground made her almost invisible in crowds.

  
That specific ability of hers was the very first thing that got Sabo when he first met her. At first he thought she had to be something like a ghost: no matter what kind of shoes she was wearing, it was always like she walked on thin air. He sometimes tried to imitate her steps but he thought it was impossible for ordinary people to reach her level.

  
«Hey, uhm… What a town, huh?» said Sabo to get the ball rolling.

  
Clock Town was indeed an interesting place. Although the architecture was detailed and rich, the air was smoggy and the streets were full of poor people with dirty clothes. Sometimes you could see a carriage crossing the streets or some man in a cool dress but the chance of spotting a chimney sweeper or someone begging for money was far greater… it was something that Sabo just couldn’t accept.

  
The name of the town was probably due to the high presence of gears and clocks in almost every corner you could lay your eyes on. In the distance, covered by fog, there was the glimpse of a massive clock tower, always visible among every other building, small compared to it, in the direction of the town’s center.

  
«Yeah, everyone looks so sad…» she said with a little voice. Her face was facing lower the more they advanced through the street. Sabo could still see that she was smiling though.

  
He thought she was kidding him and wanted to grasp the opportunity to finally ask her why she never stopped smiling in that creepy way: «Hey, can you tell me once and for all why the-»  
Unfortunately his big chance was stolen away by a running kid colliding with him. He took him by surprise and Sabo fell on the floor due to the violent impact.

  
«Hey!! Where are you running away!?» screamed the revolutionary boy as the kid kept running forward without even saying sorry. He jumped on his feet and started chasing him.

  
Probably for the first time in the day, the girl called Koala stopped smiling: «Wait!! Sabo!?» and started to chase him as well.

  
The kid who hit Sabo seemed to be around their age. He was probably a poor kid, due to his dirty clothes. He realized he was being chased and that was probably the reason the road he choose to follow was so full of obstacles. Sabo, totally forgetting about the avoid-attention part of the plan, was screaming towards that unknown kid, his attempt to make him stop; but he was surprisingly fast and they weren’t able to catch up to him.

  
At some point the running kid sneaked into the hidden door of a shabby building. Sabo as well went to follow him.

  
«Wait!- said Koala as she grabbed his wrist to stop him- What do you think you’re doing? You can’t enter a private property!!»

  
But he was far too pissed to care. Freeing himself from the girl’s grasp, he kept following him.  
The hidden door led to a large, dark room A growling Sabo looked around, in search of the kid from before that he just lost.

  
«Who are you!?» screamed a voice coming from the darkness.

An oil lamp got lighted up and the two revolutionary children found themselves face to face to a large group of children of all ages, still no one looked older than fourteen/fifteen.

  
«You are trying to get us back to the orphanage, aren’t you!? We are not going back ever again!!» said the kid from before, his left hand was holding the lamp while his right arm was holding a scared little girl.

  
Sabo was shocked when looking at the scene in front of his eyes.  
«No, don’t worry! We only have good intentions!- said Koala, trying to calm things down- We are orphans as well, if you let us, maybe we can help you.»

  
That line made Sabo pause for thought a little: was he an orphan? He had no idea. The chances of that being true were high. Was she an orphan? He had no idea either.

  
The kid wavered: «… Those guys at the orphanage want to sell us as slaves! Some of us managed to flee… but our friends are still there!!»

  
Two little twins, both about ten years old, started crying and a slightly older girl tried to comfort them.

  
Sabo felt like their problem was his own as well. He clenched his fists and declared: «We will free you all!!»

  
He was probably an orphan as well, another victim of society, just like those kids. If there was something he could do to stop that injustice, he knew it was time to act.

  
«Tell us where this orphanage is. We’ll beat up those monster’s asses and rescue your friends!!» continued Sabo before a shadow approached him from behind.  
«Hah, I’d love to see you trying.» was the last thing he heard before passing out due to a hit to his head.

 

***

 

«… Sabo!? Are you awake?» he heard a familiar voice calling him.

  
«Mhm… !?»

  
What was that place? It was a bright large and messy room, full of bulky stuff and clockworks.

Light strained through four huge clock faces, one per each of the room’s sides. He noticed a great number of children tied up on the floor around him. He could recognize a few couple of faces from the former group of children but the majority of them was entirely unfamiliar to Sabo’s eyes. He was tied up as well, he had ropes blocking his wrists and his ankles.

  
«Sabo!? Can you hear me!?» continued the same voice from before.

  
«… Koala?» he realized their wrists had been tied up together and thus they were forced back to back. He suddenly blushed in embarrassment.

  
«We are in a pinch! You were too loud and the orphanage bad guys noticed you. They followed us at these children’s hideout!! We were supposed to be as much cautious and silent as we could, and now we are trapped here as well!!»

  
«I was pissed, okay!!?» said Sabo while trying to defend himself.

  
«How exactly is this supposed to justify you!!?» snarled Koala.

  
Sabo was really surprised to see her like that: «Oh, so you can also not smile all the time»

  
«What is that supposed to mean!?» answered a raged Koala.

  
The kid from before popped up stopping the quarrel: «Sorry if I hit you yesterday. They were following me.» he was tied up to somebody else as well.

  
«Hey, it’s fine. Where are we now?» asked the revolutionary boy.

  
«Inside the Great Clock Tower- answered the kid- They brought all of the children here… They’ll come back to sell us.»

  
«They won’t. I’ll try to contact Hack and the others if I manage to set my hands free… They didn’t notice the transponder snail in my pocket.» answered Koala looking around.

  
«Oh, by the way! What’s your name?» asked Sabo.

  
The kid answered: «Joe, Bunny Joe.»

  
Sabo smiled at him: «Nice to meet you! I’m Sabo and she’s Ko-WAH» Koala jumped on her feet dragging him up with her. The could not walk due to their ankles being blocked by ropes but they could at least stand up together.

  
«Hey, maybe you can reach my pocket and grab the transponder snail!»

  
«I’ll give it a try!» said the boy as he tried to grab the snail in the girl’s pocket. It wasn’t an easy task but he somehow managed to let it out of her pocket make it fall on the floor.

  
«Good job! Now, how do we dial the number?» said Koala.

  
«Uhm… Wait, a sec.» after a few tries Sabo managed to grab the snail in his hand and tried to dial the number without looking but he failed and ended up calling who-knows-who instead.

  
«Perfect…» sighed the girl not knowing what else to do.

  
Sabo took a look around: they were all tied up in a clock tower; clocks need gears; gears are made of iron.

  
«What about that gear over there?» proposed him nodding at a sharp gear moving against one of the walls.

  
«Good idea! Can we get there?» asked Koala.

  
«Sure we can!»

  
One jump at time, together, they started getting close to the gear.

Once they got there they started trying to cut the ropes tying their wrists. At least until they heard a voice coming from right below them. A trap-door on the floor suddenly opened up and a couple of adults entered the room.

  
They started looking around and stopped only once they set their eyes on Sabo and Koala and started approaching them: «Now, now kids. You don’t want us to make you collaborate the hard way, don’t you?» as he spoke he threateningly touched the hilt of what looked like a sword.

  
The ropes in their wrists were still tied too tightly to counterattack in any way but sometimes instinct itself is enough: leaning forward, Sabo let Koala lean against his back to kick one of those thugs’ face. The other one, the one with the sword, charged with his weapon only to eventually fall thanks to Joe tripping him up.

However, he had no time to pay attention to him as the revolutionary children were taking advantage of the few moments Joe bought them by still trying to cut the ropes against the sharp edge of the gear. After getting back on his feet, the thug raised his sword once again: this time it was impossible for Sabo and Koala to avoid his slash.

  
«Whoa, thanks!» laughed Sabo as his blade cut the rope tying up their wrists once and for all. The adult growled before charging another deadly slash… Too bad little Sabo’s hands turned black as he grabbed the sharp blade of his sword, crushing it soon after with a smirk on his face. The man gulped before a fishmen karate punch knocked him out.

  
«Whew, free at last!» with their hands free it was a child’s play to untie the rope tying up their ankles.

  
As soon as she was free from ropes Koala grabbed the transponder snail and tried to get in touch with Hack. Meanwhile Sabo was helping the rest of the children to get rid of the ropes tying them. The girl who was tied up to Joe had been shaking all the time so no one didn’t even bother to ask her for help.

  
«Hack says they are coming to get us!» announced Koala.

  
«Perfect! The kids are almost all free!» continued Sabo.

  
«Jade, what’s up?» asked Joe to the shaking girl. She didn’t answer.

  
The joyful atmosphere was interrupted by steps and voices coming from the floor: «What do we have here?» started out a woman’s voice as the trap-door opened once again.

  
«She’s the orphanage’s caretaker…» whispered Joe.

  
«Poor children, why are you all so scared? You know we are only doing this for your own good.» continued the woman as she quietly walked through the room.

With a sudden movement he grabbed Koala’s arm holding the transponder snail she was hiding under her back: «Who gave you this thing, young lady?» and took it without even leaving the girl any time to react. Koala tried to get it back but other men came out from the trap-door and started catching all of the freed children once again.

  
«Let them go already!!» screamed Sabo, using his newly acquired power to knock out a few of those thugs trying to seize those innocent children. After around two full years of training, Sabo was finally able to use Ambition, although he barely knew how to activate it and couldn’t yet control how long he could make it last.

  
In all that fuss Koala had lost the woman who took her transponder snail away from her, as she was looking for her she helped getting rid of those men. Nobody was expecting two apparently defenseless kids to be able to kick so many adult’s butts: in no time, a dozen of knocked out adults’ bodies were lying on the floor.

  
«Sabo! We need to get the transponder snail back!» said Koala.

  
«I know, but the trap-door is locked from the inside!!» answered Sabo.

  
«I knew that…- said Joe with another transponder snail in hand removing the receiver from it- Why didn’t you say anything?»

  
The girl called Jade started crying before answering to the kid: «Jay and Karu…»

  
«The twins?» Joe suddenly looked worried.

  
«They told me they would at least spare them if I kept the snail without telling anybody… We got separated, I don’t know where they took them!» the girl’s words were broken by tears.

  
Koala asked to see the transponder snail: «As I feared… We can’t call anybody by using this snail, it can only send radio waves to those guys receivers…»

  
«There must be another way…» murmured Sabo looking around, trying to find whatever thing that could help them in that situation.

  
«Anyway it won’t be long until they realize that we turned the snail off.» said Joe as he stood next to his crying friend trying to comfort her with soft pats on her shoulders.

  
One of the thugs started regaining consciousness and mumbled something in the heap the children formed with all of their knocked out bodies. Sabo took the opportunity to get some information. He grabbed him by his collar and started screaming menacingly: «Where did you all take those children, you bastards!!» it was a grown-up-man versus a fourteen-years-old-boy fight but in that moment the thug only looked like a scared little puppy.

  
«I’ll tell you!! Just don’t hurt me!!» begged him before telling them they had been taken to the ship headed to Sabaody Archipelago for the Human Auctioning House already full of children coming from five or six other islands in the South Blue, leaving in less than an hour. The children trapped in the clock tower were supposed to wait for a second ship, docking at the harbor on that very night.

  
«You are disgusting…» told him Sabo before knocking him out once again.

  
«The harbor is located on the northeast cost of the island, we will never make it on time…» continued Joe.

  
«Damn…» Sabo clenched his teeth and fists not knowing what to do. Suddenly he felt a soft, trembling touch pulling his sleeve.

He turned only to find Koala with her eyes set on the floor below her: «Promise me we’ll save them…» she murmured while slightly shaking.

  
Sabo was deeply impressed by looking at his friend in that condition. He frowned before resolutely nodding at her. How could they fail, weren’t they trying to change the world?

 

***

 

When Hack received Koala’s call he ordered a couple of fellow revolutionaries to come with him as he hurried towards the tower.

He repeatedly tried to call Koala back but she never answered again. The only voice he heard through his transponder snail was a woman’s voice who, after the umpteenth call, picked up the receiver: «If you are looking for the children you should give your hopes up as they are already sailing away.»

  
Hack stopped, not knowing where to look for them anymore. He eventually decided to head for the harbor to ask how many ships left in the last hour.

  
As he got there he noticed that the only ship docked at that harbor was a huge sailing ship full of people going up and down preparing to sail. When he asked the aforementioned question to the first sailor they met, they answered that no ship left the harbor ever since that day’s vey morning.

  
Suspecting that Sabo and Koala might have been taken on a ship as well he insisted on checking the docked ship looking for them, but nobody let him in. He was starting to lose hope, but then, the distant and yet strong chime of the clock tower caught his attention and he realized that whatever the voice on the transponder snail told him was only just a bluff.

 

***

 

Children of all ages often dream of powerful, fearless heroes saving them whenever they get in trouble. On that day, a bunch of kids of all ages learned how to be heroes for themselves and for those in need.

  
«Let them think we are powerless trapped in this tower!!»

  
By handling the gears inside the tower, dozens of kids were moving the huge clock hands towards the northeast coast of the island where who knows how many innocent children were crying and praying to be saved. Three times they made the clock bells chime, three times like the pokes on the snail’s shell in case of emergency.

  
«You brats!!» screamed the woman from before’s voice as she entered the room.

  
«Hey, thanks for unlocking the door!» said Sabo before beating her up and sending her to the “bad-guys-heap”; the “tying-up team” took care of her mobility, just like they did to all of the other thugs and Koala finally managed to get her transponder snail back.

  
«Koala!? Are you two okay? We got your message: the ship has been hijacked by the others from the Army and the children are fine. I’m coming to get you both!» said Hack through the receiver.

  
The big clock’s weird behavior and the hijacked ship full of kidnapped children caused a lot of fuss in town. At least, thanks to that fuss, the illegal trade of child slaves in the South Blue was brought into light and there wasn’t much anybody, no matter how corrupted, could do to keep covering it.

  
«So, I guess it’s another win for us!» said Sabo in a laugh on the Revolutionaries’ ship headed back to Baltigo.

  
«Heh- you should thank your luck! It is true that our mission was to interrupt the child trade all along, but we were supposed to do that without putting that much on the line!» answered Hack, tired after a way too long day.

  
«Get ready for Dragon chewing you up for good.» warned him a frowning Koala.

  
Sabo gulped: «Oopsie… But hey! You know, it was the longest I haven’t seen that weird smile on your face!»

  
Koala suddenly blushed in embarrassment covering her cheeks with her hands: «What- what do you mean!?»

Sabo answered with a laugh, thinking she was kind of cute.

«Thanks again for saving us! We promise not to get in the way!» said Bunny Joe among a little group of kids. Those children without a family to return to were welcome into the Army.

  
Sabo knew he was in serious trouble but he still couldn't help smiling: he felt like the whole world was a little, little better than it was the day before that and he was happy to have been able to help in first person.

And it was all thanks to the wind.


	3. Broken Telescope

«Raise your head, Sabo.»

  
There were no proper words able to describe the annoyed look on Sabo's face whenever it was time to cut his hair.

  
Sabo hated cutting his hair. He hated it. He hated the feeling of his face being exposed. His long blonde hair made him somehow feel safe, protected.

  
The truth is, the burn scar on his left eye made him extremely insecure; he couldn't remember the way he got it but he always felt like he knew how much it hurt when he did. His hair helped him cover his scarred face from everybody else's look: he just didn’t want other people to see it, he just didn’t want he himself to see it. According to what he could remember, ever since the first time he saw his own face reflected on the mirror, he hated the sight of it.

  
«Sabo, your hair got too long. It's almost two years you don't cut it.» said the person who was trying to cut the teenager’s hair, although the fifteen years old was doing his best to make the task impossible. The one with scissors hands was Inazuma, a fellow revolutionary. He- her? Sabo had no idea how to use pronouns around okamas… on that very moment he was in his male form although he had a specific way to change his body into the one of a woman in no time.

  
«Yeah, yeah, I know… just don’t cut it too short, okay?» said Sabo with a pouting face.

  
Thanks to the choki choki devil fruit’s powers, there was nothing the okama couldn’t cut when he turned his hands into scissors and he could also be a pretty fine hair stylist too; every once in a while he was available in Baltigo for haircuts.

 

***

 

«I think your new haircut really suits you!» said Koala with a smile after Inazuma was done cutting her hair as well. Although she was a girl, she never let her hair grow down her shoulders.

  
It’s true that long hair is an evident risk for people who were supposed to fight like them, but Koala, differently from Sabo, seemed to really prefer short over long hair.

  
«It was far better when it was longer…» said Sabo with an annoyed voice.

  
Koala, as usual, just smiled at him.

  
Her sixteenth birthday was getting closer but Sabo was already taller than her. It was surprising how quickly his body could grow in a matter of months: Koala always used to be the taller one among them but now it was the other way around and Sabo never wasted the chance to remind it to her. Whenever he did, a pouting face was everything she would answer him with but seeing alternatives to her usual smiling face was almost like a reward to him, so he never stopped trying to get on her nerves.

  
On her part Koala, although that side of him really, really irked her sometimes, she seemed to enjoy his company. They used to spend most of their time together: training together, working together, eating together. They really were on the same page.

  
«What’s wrong with your hair, Sabo-boy?» said a powerful voice behind him. It belonged to their revolutionary comrade, okama King Ivankov, also known as the Queen of Kamabakka.

  
Remember the “specific way” Inazuma had to swap between sexes? It is all a miracle at the hands of Ivankov. His horu horu devil fruit’s powers let him control people hormones, thus changing people sexes was a piece of cake for him.

  
Sabo sighed: «It’s just that I like them best when they are longer.» he said with a pout on his face.

  
«Mmmfufufu, you know I can make your hair grow as much as I want, don’t you?» said the man of miracles.

  
Sabo gulped again: «No, thanks.»  
The okamas’ headquarter was on the island of Momoiro but it wasn’t unusual to spot some of them around on Baltigo as well: they were a fundamental part of the Revolution after all. Every now and then they would bring with them new members, supplies or even little treasures they gathered around. Every time they did, Sabo was the first one to run to their ship’s hold and dig in the treasures’ heap, but on that very day they forced him to be a good boy for once and cut his hair first.

  
«Can we go now?» asked Sabo unable to wait anymore.

  
«Mmh, you seem to have kept your promise… Hurry up, before we have to leave with the treasures!» said Ivankov.

  
«Yeah! Let’s go Koala!» said a cheerful Sabo as he run out of the room.

  
«Eh? Wait!» said Koala before running after him.

  
Ivankov smiled at them as they disappeared beyond the door: «I love those children…»

 

***

 

Once Sabo reached the harbor, he jumped on the okamas’ ship without wasting a single moment, rushing for the treasure hidden in the hold.

  
«Here it is!» he said once he had found the heap of junk. With a big smile on his face he started to dig in looking for something interesting.

  
«Old toys… a broken clock… oh, a weird helmet!» he said while estimating each item’s worth as he grabbed and examined them one by one.

  
«Mmh, this time the heap is smaller than usual…» he told Koala who just reached him on the ship out of breath.

  
«Wait for me next time, would you?» she said while looking angrily at him but he was too concentrated on the treasure in front of him to answer her.

  
«… Huh? What’s this?» he eventually asked himself as he noticed something in the heap instantly catching his attention.

  
It was a rusty, broken telescope, a really old one. And yet Sabo couldn’t take his eyes off it. He felt like that thing in his hands was the one thing he had been looking for his entire life; he felt like he knew exactly what to do with that telescope, remembering a faint voice wishing for it.

  
«Look at what I’ve found! You were looking for it, weren’t you?» said Sabo with the biggest smile on his face as he offered the newfound telescope to his friend.

  
«Huh? Me? Are you sure?» she answered, puzzled by the teenage boy’s words.

  
He didn’t answer again, this time because he felt his mind being engulfed into the void. There was someone, someone he cared about who was looking for that telescope. Who?

  
He jumped on his feet and run off the ship’s hold, completely not noticing Koala’s voice calling for him, strongly holding the broken telescope he had just found.

  
Who? Who was it?

  
He felt so close to an answer, but at the same time he felt like he was distancing himself from it after every step he took.

  
He felt so lonely, running aimlessly, lost in the darkness of his mind.

  
It wasn’t the first time happening him: panicking because he felt something slipping from his mind again. He always felt like he absolutely couldn’t forgive himself for forgetting something really important, but at the same time he was so scared by the thought of remembering, almost like he was running away from something.

  
«Oh, Hack!!» Sabo called his friend as soon as he saw him.

  
«Hey Sabo, what’s up?» answered Hack.

  
«It was you, wasn’t it? You wanted this telescope!» said Sabo trying to smile at him, hoping for a positive answer.

  
«Telescope? Uhm… no, why?» answered the fishman instead.

  
«… Damn.» said Sabo through his clenched teeth before running away once again, without giving his friend a proper explanation.

  
He had no clue about the identity of that person but he still searched for them, hoping to find them and settle this thing once and for all. He tried to remember with all of his strength but the more he felt close to a solution, the more he was sure he was just straying from the truth.

  
He tried asking to literally everyone he knew but with no luck. He asked his friend Bunny Joe and all of the new kids who joined the Army during the past few years but nobody remembered anything about a telescope. Anything.

  
He started asking people he didn’t know very well, colleagues he wasn’t close with. He asked Inazuma and the okamas but no, nobody knew anything about that telescope.

  
«Was it you?» he finally asked his friend Ivankov with a serious look on his face showing him the telescope, waiting for an answer with his brow furrowed and sweaty.

  
«Huh? Was it me what?» he asked, a little confused by the boy’s weird question.

  
Sabo growled in frustration: «Was it you looking for a telescope!?» he started shaking, afraid of the

“no” he was about to listen.  
«Uhm… no, I don’t remember-» but the boy didn’t even let him finish his sentence: he run away once again, aware that no one was left on that island with the answers he needed.

  
«… Sabo-boy?»

 

***

 

He was back, sitting on his favorite rock, on his favorite part of Baltigo: the one place that always managed to calm him down. Not that time though.

  
He never panicked this much about his missing memories, he never felt this hopeless and frustrated about it. The pressure of the possibility that somebody was needing him somewhere on that vast ocean, the guilt of having abandoned them if they did and the paralyzing fear of remembering things he somehow knew it was better to leave forgotten, everything was about to make his head explode.

  
He couldn’t remember when exactly tears started to flow out of his eyes; he hated the thought of him crying, he hated the thought of him not being strong enough.

As he wiped off his tears away he touched the burn scar on his face with the back his hand. That scar was his memento of his past life, of all the memories that were gone and now, of that person looking for a telescope, lost somewhere in the darkness of his mind, and he hated the feel of it.

  
Wiping away his tears was useless since he was unable to stop himself from crying, no matter how hard he tried. He looked back again at the old, broken telescope. He just wanted it to disappear, engulfed by the waves.

  
His thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling his name which made his blood run cold. Nobody had to see him crying.

  
«Sabo… Are you okay?» asked a worried Koala, on the top of that rocky slope.

  
«Yeah! Just go away now.» he answered, trying to conceal his cracked voice.

  
«… But you are crying…» she said.

  
«Me? Crying? Ahahah, as if! I don’t cry.» he said hoping she would believe him.

  
She didn’t answer him and he didn’t want to turn to check if she was still there, afraid that she might see his tears. So he just didn’t do anything and waited for a couple of moments. The silence persisted, so he slowly started to turn his head, hoping not to encounter her eyes. However she was there, right behind his back, with a worried look on her face.

  
He let out a scream out of surprise, his face back, pointed towards the ocean in front of him: «Stop scaring me like that!!»

  
«I met Hack and Iva, they are really worried too…- she said in a small voice- Is this about something from your past that you can’t remember?»

  
Sabo lowered his eyes to the telescope on the ground: «… Kind of.»

  
He was feeling lost and insecure, he clung onto everything he could remember not knowing if there was anything else he forgot along with his lost childhood memories.

  
«Uhm… I’ve got something for you.» said the girl.

  
«Huh?» Sabo instantly turned towards her noticing that the girl’s little hand was holding a little present wrapped up in yellow paper. She stretched her arm inviting the boy to take it.

  
«For me? Why?» he asked, surprised by his friend’s deed.

  
«Because I know that you don’t remember your birthdate so we never really celebrated it…» she answered.

  
“Birthday…” he never really thought about that, he actually never really cared either.

  
«I thought about my own birthday getting close, so I wanted you to celebrate your own birthday as well- she explained with a timid smile, her eyes pointed at her own feet- I was planning to give it to you on my birthday but you looked really down today…»

  
He wasn’t seeing that coming at all, the only thing known about his birthdate was the year… He was so surprised he didn’t even realized he was blushing a little.

  
He thanked her unwrapping the little present in his hands: it was a small book with a simple blue cover, its pages were all empty.

  
«It’s a diary! It helps you remembering things- she exclaimed with a bright smile on her face- When you feel like you forgot something important, you can reread what you wrote on this diary and you’ll remember!»

  
He never really tried to write anything personal during his days on Baltigo but he suddenly felt drawn to the idea of starting doing so, almost as if writing was one of his dearest long lost things from the past.

  
His tears were now gone, replaced by a genuine, happy smile. He still couldn’t take his eyes off the little diary.

  
«Thank you Koala! But wait… Does it mean I have to think about a present for your birthday too?» he said with an annoyed voice.

  
Her voice sounded really angry in return: «What??»

 

***

 

Everything he felt after seeing that broken telescope was the first thing he noted down on that little diary. When he was done writing he realized he used half of the total of all of the pages in that book. He realized that he loved to write and that he could’ve spent whole hours filling books with words. He swore not to forget anything again, to note down every single time he felt like he was remembering something and all of the little emotions, positive or not he had everyday about anything.

  
«Eh? Notebooks?» asked Ivankov right before getting on his ship to leave the harbor.

  
«Yup!!» answered Sabo.

  
The boy asked the okama King to bring him stationery and writing materials along with the usual treasures heap next time.

  
«Hee-Haw, you got a deal Sabo-boy! See you all soon!»

  
Sabo and Koala waved at him as the ship distanced itself from the island’s coast; the sun was about to set.

  
«If I knew you liked writing this much I would’ve give you a diary way sooner.» said Koala.

  
«Do you keep a diary as well?» he asked.

  
«Yup, I write a lot of stuff!» she answered.

  
«Like what?» he asked again.

  
She turned around and started to walk back at the base: «For instance, I keep a list of all of the times and ways you used to misspell my name when we first met.»

  
«Eh?»


End file.
